| ya gotta keep in mind your planets grow pop faster when they are happy, with like a double rate when they are real happy (100%) since your money comes from taxes more pop = more taxes, so you wanna keep them happy so they will rut and make babies for you to tax and then hurl at enemy worlds. So when ya begin don't drop a factory or a lab or anything like that, buy yourself a entertainemtn complex adjust your tax rate so your homeworld is 100% happy each turn you can buy a ship you need if you have the cash and on the planet you should buy some factories to make colony ships. new planets get an entertainemt thingy, then develop them as you want. when all the planets are gone, your pop will be big and you can crank taxes. |
Yeah, I start out in a very similar fashion. I also like starting out as the Torians sometimes since they have an inherited morale bonus.
First, main view, I start by clicking my flagship, hitting 'A' on my keyboard, then letting him do his thing. Send the colony ship home, then bring it back out so it gets a full load of colonists.
Secondly, finance window, I put taxes at 39%, put all funding into research, then crank capacity up to 100%.
Third, home planet view, take note of tile bonuses, decide if homeworld is going to be any of my capitals. (Rarely has my homeworld been a capital since it will only go from a class 10 to a 13, one or two more if you have PQ bonuses). Since it rarely is a capital, I just try to utilize tiles to the best of their ability. I buy one entertainment network, then 2 labs, then 1 Marketplace, 1 more entertainment network, and assuming the homplanet isn't going to be a capital, I'll try and put the equivalent of 4 factories on it.
Two Entertainment Networks are enough to keep morale at 100% @ 39% tax rate until the pop gets around 8.00 bil. or so...
I try to conserve money by buying as few colony ships as possible. I crank money into research so I can get some Basic techs quickly. This allows me to screw research for a bit later and focus all on Social. I have a few techs that I will ALWAYS get before cutting research:
1. Impulse Drive (Free +1 speed, better engine)
2. Planetary Improvements (+10% to all prod./res.)
3. Trade (able to build Econ. Capital and Restaurant of Eternity)
4. Advanced Computing (Tech. Capital and Smart Drones, which is the 4th prod. booster for Econ. starbases)
5. Sensors*** (Not always a must to me, but a free +1 sensor range and with Stellar Cartography, you can see planets and stars on the mini-map)
6. Basic Logistics and then General Life Support (Range bonus, lets the flagship look farther for stuff)
*** - With Impulse Drive, Sensors, and General Life Support, you can make a decent Surveyor using a cargo hull, it's not hard to match your flagships speed, just one Impulse Engine... so why not put 3 on the cargo surveyor!
Maybe throw in a few other techs if you want, but don't waste to much time since your enemies are usually not taking much time to research, if any, initially.
Hopefully, your flagship will run across a few resources as well. All of them are VERY valuable, but the research ones aren't as valuable as the others.
Have your planets function whichever way you think is best. Personally, I try and have every planet start with 3 or 4 factories so as not to have to wait for money to buy everything. I have 4 types of planets, or specializations...
a. Ship builder - These are large planets with every tile devoted to manufacturing except for one StarPort and maybe one Morale booster to try and keep approval above 75%. I tend to pick them more on actual production capacity and not on class alone. (Like noting wether terraforming techs give 1 or 2 tiles at each level and noticing any manufacturing bonuses on tiles) I almost always put my Manufacturing Capital on the one with highest manufacturing points.
b. Tech planet - These are also large planets. Every tiles is devoted to devoted to labs, with the exceoption of a space for the one where I am going to put my tech capital, and another one for trying to keep my approval about 75%. (I will have some factories on it initially, but once I get to the point where I can easily afford to buy new/upgraded labs, I tend to scrap the factories for labs instead.)
c. Money Maker - These aren't always the largest planets, but are the ones I plan on stuffing a lot of people on. I use the planets with morale bonuses wether it be from tiles or from a random event for this type.
d. B**ch planets - These are any size planets that don't seem to stand out as anything great, but are important none the less because I will put any Super Projects and/or achievements on them that affect the empire as a whole and not just the planet so as not to waste a tile on one of the previous types. Usually these can have a decent production and/or research capacity, thus acting as more of a support role. In other words, they do the stuff that the other planets can do, just don't want to do...
It's getting late, so this is my last pointer... Make as many trade goods as you think you might need and try and get all of the useful Galactic Achievements. Here is my list that I usually use to pick which ones to build, 1 is highest priority.
1. and 2. Diplomatic Translators and Restaurant of Eternity. (Diplomatic edge, and a 20% influence bonus, not important so much for you to have, just for you to keep from everyone else, I have yet to trade the Diplomatic Translators out if I can build them first)
3. Xinthanium Hull Plating (+15% hp, once again, not so much important for you, but also important to keep it from them)
4. Morale boosting trade goods. (A.I. is more willing to trade these to you if you don't build them)
5. Galactic Showcase (+25% Diplomacy skill)
6. Galactic Bazaar (Makes the A.I. think the stuff you're offering up in a trade is worth a lot more than it really is!)
7. Omega Research Center (+50% research boost on planet it's built upon, not so great since it's a smaller bonus than the tech capital, and even less valuable since it comes so late into the game, but it does help regardless)
8. Hypercomputers (Relatively easy to get, plus you'll probably already be going down that branch of the tech tree since the A.I. almost always seems to use Missle weapons at first)
As for how fast to get everything done, that just depends on your style of play. Some like to rush in before the A.I. can build a defense, tends to be very effective, but gets harder to do as the intelligence of the A.I. increases. I like to try and devote some time to the Diplomacy branch so I can trade easily for other techs or cash, and if I finish it, one can build the Spin Control Center. It's nice because you can have a military with only 3 ships, but in orbit of the planet with the S.C. Center will make your military rating appear much higher than it really is.
Also, the A.I. tends to start getting aggresive and start a serious military after first year, then they start looking for who to invade the second year. If you don't have a decent military, and/or good relations with other races by then, you will get harassed... a lot...
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